


One Is The Loneliest Number...

by Little_Writer_Babe



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Protective Alex Danvers, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 02:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11117862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Writer_Babe/pseuds/Little_Writer_Babe
Summary: Alexandra Danvers has always been at the top... top of her class, top agent at the DEO, the best of the best but she finds that being number one can get very,very lonely.





	One Is The Loneliest Number...

**Author's Note:**

> Some angsty Alex but also a good deal of fluff!

 

It’s lonely at the top.

 

Alex Danvers knew this well. She embodied it, embraced it; because if she wasn’t striving to be the best, she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself.

 

If she wasn’t fighting, wasn’t _protecting_... well, that was all she knew _how_ to do.

 

All she had done from the age of fourteen onwards.

 

While other girls were worrying about clothes, makeup and boys, Alex was helping with funeral preparations for her father, comforting her new alien sister and staying up until three a.m. to finish her physics homework.

 

Yes, Alexandra Danvers childhood had been short-lived.

 

She didn’t begrudge it, though.

 

While her childhood seemed to have been taken without warning, she was given something _far_ more precious in return.

 

As an only child, she’d never thought she wanted or needed a sibling. After all, she had her parents, her friends, a budding surf career; more than she possibly could have asked for.

 

Or so she thought.

 

The moment she laid eyes on her, that frightened little girl whose whole world had quite literally imploded, Alex _knew_. She knew she would give _anything_ to protect her, become _anything_ just to see a smile light up her sister’s face.

 

Protecting Kara gave her a mission, a tangible reason to be better. Suddenly, her pathological need to excel made _sense_.

 

Even when she hit rock bottom, when her life lay in smoldering ruins, she knew she had to get back up, for _her._

 

Joining the DEO was the best decision she had made in a long, long while. It saved both her life _AND_ her sister’s because one could not exist without the other. Kara was the sun and she the moon.

 

Some would call their reliance upon one another unhealthy; unnaturally co-dependent, but she knew better.

 

Alex knew Kara was her reason to be _better_. Knew she needed to be the _best_. Only the best could protect Kara; the best is what she deserved.

 

So Alex fought and bled and clawed her way to the top; until she was second only to one and she found the old adage to be true.

 

Yes, it was indeed lonely at the top.

 

As second-in-command, she needed to be stern and authoritative, no space for casual friendships or even acquaintances.

 

When Kara came out as Supergirl, she grit her teeth and prepared for the backlash; for the slew of b-list villains who hadn’t been able to best Kal-El but were willing to settle for the “Girl of Steel”.

 

And come they did. A villain a week like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

 

Then came Fort Roz and Non and of course, Astra. _Kara’s_ _family_ , by blood but little else. Their existence shook Kara to the core and she turned to her big sister for guidance, for assurance.

 

Kara was convinced Alex had all the answers. Alex was convinced Kara was wrong but worked hard to prove her sister right. And when the answer to the Kryptonian crisis came...Alex _wished_ she had been wrong.

 

Because killing Astra had been the right thing to do, concealing it from Kara had felt so very _wrong_.

 

Once again the eldest Danvers found herself alone; alone with her guilt, alone with the burning shame that came from hurting Kara.

 

“I killed Astra.”

 

She declared those words without preamble, unable to watch her sister and their surrogate father drift further apart. She expected Kara to rant, to rage, and denounce her as her sibling. It was the least she deserved.

 

Instead, Kara had hugged her and cried and told her over and over how much she loved her; that she forgave her for not being the best just this once; Alex would be damned if she let her sister down again.

 

In that moment, she knew she was Kara’s number one and in that moment... One suddenly didn’t feel so lonely anymore.

 

Sadly, that moment passed and Alex was relegated to the background, watching with detached interest as Kara floated through a series of doomed relationships, each man more wrong for her than the one before.

 

And when they let her down, broke her heart and left her drowning in a sea of potstickers and ice cream, Alex was there.

 

Steady and reliable.

 

The _best_ big sister; Kara’s _best_ friend; the DEO’s _best_ agent. All singular titles. Lonesome in their inclusiveness.

 

It wasn’t until she met Maggie that one stopped feeling lonely again.

 

Because suddenly Alex believed in “The One”; that person who made life sweeter and the whole world more pleasant to endure.

 

She’d thought that person had been Kara, that their sisterly bond was the only type of love Alex could ever want or need.

 

But then came Maggie.

 

Tiny and fierce. Intelligent and funny. Caring and so, so beautiful that she took Alex’s breath away when she smiled, dimples on full display.

 

She’d thought she was Maggie’s number one but there was an ambiguity to their relationship that left Alex reeling and unsure, utterly devastated. Until the day Maggie said the words they both needed to hear; gave her the kiss that destroyed her defenses and set her world on fire.

 

Because she _was_ Maggie’s “one” and the tiny detective was _hers_ and somehow, inexplicably Kara was the perfect addition to their equation.

 

So the three became each other’s one and Alex realized that she didn’t need to be _perfect,_ that she was already the _best._

 

The _best sister_ for Kara.

 

The _best girlfriend_ for Maggie.

 

And the best, most perfect version of herself with her two number one’s.

 

Suddenly, one felt amazing and full and beautiful and Alex Danvers was no longer lonely at the top.

 

 


End file.
